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THE HARDEST PART OF FAITH

On his way home after a great military victory, King Asa of Judah was intercepted by a prophet. This man did not come to congratulate Asa but to give him a warning: “As long as you rely on the Lord, fully trusting Him, you will be blessed. He will walk with you and give you victory after victory. But if you turn away from Him, trusting in your flesh, you will have disorder and chaos in every area of your life” (see 2 Chronicles 15:1-6).

A GLORIOUS TIME

Asa took this message to heart and walked faithfully with the Lord for thirty-six years. During that time, God greatly blessed Judah. It was a wonderful, glorious time to live in that land but after all those years, another crisis came. The backslidden king who ruled Israel (which had divided itself from Judah) launched an attack on Asa. He captured Ramah, a town just five miles from Judah’s capital, Jerusalem, cutting off that vital trade route to the city. If something didn’t happen quickly, Judah’s entire economy would collapse.

FEAR AND PANIC

This time, King Asa moved in fear. Instead of trusting the Lord, he turned for help to a notorious enemy, the king of Syria. Unbelievably, Asa stripped Judah’s treasury of all its wealth and offered it to the Syrians to deliver Judah. It was an act of absolute unbelief.

It is often said that the hardest part of faith is the last half hour. The fact is, God already had put into motion his plan to deliver Judah, but Asa aborted that plan by acting in fear and panic.

ANOTHER PROPHETIC WORD

Asa received another word, “Because you didn’t trust the Lord, from now on you will have wars” (see 2 Chronicles 16:9). And so it was in Judah.